An Introduction To The Maths Department

Welcome to the world of Mathematics. This is where you will find news of events past and future to do with mathematics, problems and brainteasers to get you thinking, and other items of interest to provoke and stimulate the brain.

At Claremont we believe that everyone has a latent talent for mathematics. Our task is to awaken and develop that potential in each child, so that they can learn to appreciate the use, and the joy, and the challenge of mathematics. By facing up to that challenge and working steadily, pupils develop  life skills such as logical deduction, persistence, changing their perspective and thinking outside the box. They also discover that as well as being a science, mathematics can be a creative art. That's why so many pupils at Claremont say maths is their favourite subject, and so many go on to study maths at university.

At Key Stage 3, GCSE and AS and A Level, our examination results are consistently excellent. Tuition is closely geared to the exam syllabus (AQA Syllabus A for GCSE, Edexcel for AS and A Level), but not so closely that we cannot have fun along the way, and make use of the extensive school grounds and the vast world of the internet. Although real maths is done mainly with pencil and paper, the e-learning initiative has allowed us to speed up and streamline many of the repetitive mechanical processes of mathematics. Pupils can work through many more examples with a computer than they can the traditional way, and they can experiment endlessly with various techniques. This means that they acquire a number of IT skills in maths lessons such as the use of spreadsheets, interactive geometry and graph drawing packages.

All pupils are setted in mathematics up to GCSE. There are four sets in each year, and there is regular movement between the sets. Our primary objective is always to place each pupil in the set in which they will make most progress. To help pupils who have missed work or struggle with particular topics, there are regular maths workshops to help them catch up. To keep the more able fully stretched, there are many challenges offered both within and outside school - see the Maths Diary for more details of these.

At A level, as well as the compulsory Core Pure Maths modules (C1, C2, C3, C4) we offer the full range of options for Applied Maths including& Mechanics, Statistics and Decision Maths. Pupils can also choose to study all of these at Further Maths level. There is no coursework for Mathematics or Further Mathematics at either AS or A level.

Visit the Maths Links page for some links to lots of websites: some of them have fun games to play, some have challenging puzzles, some have incredible pictures and some can help pupils who get stuck with prep. Browse through them and be amazed at some of the wonders of the world of Maths!